Treat those two impostors just the same
Market rules
It was the worst of times, it was the best of times, may you live in interesting times...
There are plenty of homilies and death rattles floating around Crypto Twitter as the market, already hit by macro economic conditions and a tech valuation crunch, then absorbed a major stablecoin (UST) depegging and killing Terra (previously a top 10 marketcap blockchain) in the process.
As tends to happen in the over-leveraged crypto markets, this triggered a liquidation cascade, which has resulted in a broad and brutal sell-off and what now feels like an existential crisis.
Certainly there are plenty of people and institutions nursing bloody noses and worse. Portfolios have been crushed across the board and funding is going to dry up.
If you’ve just closed and the funds have hit your wallet/bank, congratulations. Everyone else beware.
But it’s not for nothing that crypto is known for its contranians, although in the case of CEO Brian Armstrong the fact that Coinbase’s stock is down 85% — squeezed by the tech crunch and crypto squeeze — suggests his offer may be somewhat self-serving.
Still, I think he has a good point.
If your belief in crypto specifically or blockchain and web3 as a sector is only a reflection of an asset’s day-to-day price, this is a rude wake up call. Uncharitable as it is to say it, you should get out and stay out of the market.
But if your belief in blockchain is belief in the concept of decentralized asset ownership then, even in these conditions, daily asset price is an almost irrelevant reflection of the random walk of speculators.
In that context, this week — while uncomfortable reading in terms of on-paper wealth — is actually a valuable exercise in resetting future valuations to more thoughtful levels both for investors and those looking to raise.
More generally, as I never tire of telling people:
Thesis #1: Digital asset value eventually trends to 1 or 0
Thesis #2: Blockchain will totally disrupt gaming but 99.9% of blockchain games will fail
So take the oppportunity to forget your losers and prepare for the next cycle of products that are focused on the things that always really mattered. Unsurprisingly I think there are some great blockchain games launching in the coming months.
But this isn’t to assume the market is going to spring back anytime soon. The pain is real and probably has some way still to go.
All together now “It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine”.
Axie Infinity: Origin Launch news
Axie Infinity: Origin is now live via APK for Android devices. Previously only available for PC, this is the first mobile version of the game with true free-to-play gameplay as everyone gets three Axie characters (non-NFTs) with which to start the game.
Testing will continue until the game includes full features such as token rewards, crafting NFT runes/charms, and the first Origin leaderboard season with AXS prizes. Obviously the biggest goal remains to get it live through Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Funding news
Canadian outfit Lighthouse Labs has announced a $7 million seed round, which was co-led by Accel, BlockTower and Animoca Brands. White Star Capital, Gemini Frontier Fund, Tiny VC and angels including Patricio Worthalter (POAP), Ryan Selkis (Messari) and Alex Svanevik (Nansen) also participated.
Lighthouse Labs says it’s building “the open metaverse navigation engine”. This will enable users to search for places, events, creators, experiences, and friends across and within virtual worlds such as The Sandbox, Decentraland and Voxels — think of it as Google for the metaverse.
In order to fulfil this mission, Lighthouse partners directly integrates with the worlds for which it provides search capabilities so it properly understand their 3D media. It expects to launch its platform in summer 2022 and you can connect your wallet now for its beta launch NFT.
Blockchain RPG Time Shuffle has announced a $2.1 million seed round which was co-led by Ava Labs and Shima, with participation from Nexon, DWeb3, Genesis Block Ventures and other common-or-garden crypto funds.
As Ava Labs’ involvement highlights, the turn-based game is being built on the Avalanche blockchain, although also plans to go multi-chain over time. The team is based in Bulgaria.
Otherside Metaverse news
Probably not the best timing but here’s the first footage from Yuga Labs’ metaverse. Looks pretty good, surprisingly!
